All About Us...

Welcome to IACW

We are a diverse group of talented, fun loving, crafters who want to share loads of great stuff with you. Inspired by colour, paper, fabric, nature, patterns, sounds, architecture, we love to create and we're not afraid to experiment. We have our roots from around the world and are constantly learning and gaining inspiration from the world around us. We hope you enjoy your visit to our blog.

Our Commitment to You

We will regularly post our creative endeavours to INSPIRE and stimulate the CREATIVITY of our readers. Our new posting schedule offers you something for the weekend, with posts on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

Copyright

Please note that although we are happy to share our ideas and creations in the hope that they will inspire you, everything displayed on this site as well as our own personal blogs is copyright to the individual members of It's A Creative World and should not be directly copied.

August 2013

August 31, 2013

Hi Debbie here with a quick and easy idea for wall art. The picture below was made by my friend Faye when we spent a day crafting in the Summer holidays.

We both started out with a heart template and cut lots of butterflies, I used a canvas and Faye used an old picture frame. Once the large butterflies were positioned, the smaller butterflies were added.

Take away the template and you have a finished piece ready to go on the wall.

This is a brilliant way to use up scraps of paper and I think I will be making more.

August 24, 2013

Hi it's Bev today and I thought I'd have a break from denim upcycling this month, something practical.

My daughter Lilli has very different eyesight in her eyes. One is perfect and the other was so long sighted that she hardly used it; I thought the lop sided look was a little attitude, how wrong can you be!

She had to go through approximately 2 years of patching - 8 hours a day. The NHS give out sticky patches with wonderful patterns on but they can iteratate the skin round the eye so I started looking for an alternative. This is a while ago and they do now have some cloth patches but you have to ask.

I found this wonderful tutorial on how to make a felt one to fit over her glasses at LucyKate crafts. It was easy to make and slid right on to her glasses. It changed how Lilli coped with the patching, a BIG thank you.

Lilli and I went shopping and she choose the felt. We had a go and decided to add some extra beads as a bit of bling.

I know this won't be for everyone but I think occasionally it will find the right person and it really helps. My gratitude to LucyKate crafts is immense through a difficult time. All finished patching now as they say it doesn't help after 7/8 years. It helped a lot and now the battle is to find glasses she likes to wear.

August 23, 2013

Good Morning one and all and Welcome to It's a Creative World, Virginia here providing something a bit different on the craft front, I thought you might like a no sew project which is quick and fun to do, inspired by all the music festivals over the summer. My sister earlier in the year was off to the Download festival for the weekend and had within her possession a brand new rock t-shirt, not wanting it to look brand new or very much like a t-shirt we set too with only a pair of scissors to create this.

From the front you can see the sleeves have been removed and the neckline lowered, t-shirting tends to roll quite easily once cut, creating something of it's own naturally hem

This is how it started out and yes that is a sewing machine in the picture all ready to use only to find out it was completely unnecessary!

Once the sleeves are removed, you can start to see the t-shirt take shape!

There is a need to keep trying it on, particularly when reworking the neckline and the sleeves so that it falls right, but this is part of the fun of it!

The back was somewhat more elaborate, we cut straight up the middle and then cut along in strips, stretching the t-shirting as we went and then knotting the same, once my sister was happy with the knots we trimmed the excess t-shirting! Obviously you can cut away less from your t-shirt thus making an added garment underneath unnecessary, you can also add safety pins to the creation if you fancy.

So with simple supplies and half an hour you can have great fun with t-shirts!

August 18, 2013

Some weeks ago I made a couple of 8 inch square (ish) pieces, just freestyle, but they didn't really set me on fire, so I put them away until I felt inspired to finish them off.

That day came, I added a few more scraps, buttons and stitches, joined them together, added a border of tea-dyed broderie anglaise trim, and stitched the whole thing to some artists' canvas.

I added a couple of flaps inside, made plenty of pages from kraft card (Staples own brand manila files in a previous life) and toning cardstock, stitched lace or ribbon on each page, bound the lot with the Bind it all and slipped the front and back pages into the cover flaps.

August 17, 2013

Hi folks Erika here again and today I wanted to share something with you that I was involved with recently. I had a telephone call from a local cancer charity to ask if I was prepared to work with a family making memory boxes. Unfortunately the lady had terminal cancer and two young girls. I was honoured to be asked to be involved with such a task and wanted to create something simple that children could make themselves but also long lasting, something that would take some knocks and bumps and still stand strong over the years.

We started with some large wooden boxes and a selection of napkins, PVA glue and varnish. I let both children and mum pick which napkins they preferred and we set to work, tearing small bits and gluing to the boxes. Once finished I took them home to dry before applying a couple of strong coats of clear varnish.

Here are the finished boxes....

And finally mum's box...

We also made coordinating simple mini books for them to fill in when and if they want to with memories of days out to come, to get them started.

I had an amazing time with this family and hope they enjoy filling their boxes and enjoy precious time they have together.

It makes you realise how short life really is and I fully intend to make these with my boys too. They too thought it was a great idea but did mention no flowers or butterflies!

Sometimes we get so wrapped up in the present that we forget to record. I am as guilty of this as the next person. I love scrap booking but always have something else to make or do. I really now want to make time to sit down with my own kids and create similar boxes before they're all grown up. Will you?

August 16, 2013

Welcome to Friday! Leanne here, and I hope that you're all enjoying the start of your weekend, and maybe settling down to do some crafting :)

But sometimes, no matter how ready we are, and how badly we want to create, it just doesn't happen. Mojo deserts us. And for those times, there's CASEing. That's a term I've only learned since joining the SU sisterhood, but a concept that we are all familiar with: Copy And Share Everything!

That was my problem recently, I wanted to make a wedding layout with clusters of embellishments and, whilst musing on what I'd do, I bought my first magazine in over 12 months (honest, I've been so good, sticking to my free Pinterest!). I flicked through and immediately saw the perfect layout- great colours, composition, vintage but not too grungy... And I decided that I could spend hours wondering how to do my own, or I could just give myself permission to make myself one just like it. So I did, using as many scraps as I could, stamping my own paper, and drawing on my Thickers!

Here's the original, a gorgeous creation by Emilie Chamel, on page 40 of Scrap365 Aug/Sept:

And here's my effort- What do you think?!

So go ahead.

Give credit where it's due, and then shamelessly recreate somebody else's masterpiece. Why not? It's a ready thought-out project, planned, measured, and composed. You don't have to think, work out a colour scheme, or a title. Just go with what's there! And I promise it will either leave you with a finished item to be proud of, and a sated creative appetite, OR - even better - it might just kick-start your creative juices! You may end up with something nothing like the original, but that doesn't matter; Like sketches and challenges, let them inspire you into creation. And don't forget to thank your muse, and let them know how they have inspired you, because it'll mean a lot to them :)

Thank you for stopping by to see me; Do check back tomorrow and Sunday for our offerings, and link back if you CASE them so we can come heap glowing praise :)

August 10, 2013

Hi everyone! Lisa here and this week I wanna share one of my favorite techniques with you: embossing resist.

Whenever I try to describe this technique to someone, they kind of look at me as though they think I'm insane (they probably do--doesn't bother me, happens all the time) and then they say, "It won't work". But it DOES.

Check out my focal image here, that's where I did the embossing resist.

See how the white stands out from the blue background? That's cause I embossed the stamped image with CLEAR embossing powder on white cardstock. You want a cardstock that's kind of thick (I really like Wassau Bright White but you can also use the Georgia Pacific stuff they sell at Walmart for under $6!) and has a smooth finish, no texture to it at all.

I prefer Versamark but you can stamp with any embossing ink. After heating the powder completely, let it cool for a few minutes so that when you rub the ink on, you won't take the embossing off! (Waiting also keeps you from burning your hands on the hot powder. Yes, I've done this myself, more than once.)

When your embossing is cool, take a makeup sponge or Tim Holtz ink blending tool and rub your favorite dye-based inks over the raised design. Your stamped image will stay white while the ink fills in the background, creating depth.

I call this card "Caged No More" 'cause the bird has escaped its cage and will soon be free.

I hope this card inspires you to try the resist technique out, you'll be a fan! Thanks so much for looking and happy crafting! --Lisa Bedigian